PETA statement re: Copenhagen Zoo kills four lions

For Immediate Release:
March 26, 2014

Copenhagen Zoo, which pleads that there is nowhere to put these animals, didn’t find them abandoned on the doorstep one morning—the zoo brought them into this world. Like domesticated cats, big cats breed unless they’re sterilized, and that is exactly what the zoo had an ethical obligation to do—to sterilize them, rather than bringing cubs into the world simply to kill them. This callous action highlights the fact that zoo breeding programs serve no conservation purpose, because animals born in zoos are rarely—if ever—returned to their natural homelands. The way to save “exotic” animals is to donate to campaigns that protect them in their native habitats.